Chocolate Tacos

In celebration of Cinco De Mayo (which we have never actually celebrated before, but then again, we've never found a recipe for chocolate tacos before, either!) we made chocolate tacos.  These were awesome!  They were kind of like chewy, thin brownies.  It's like having an amazing banana split, or hot fudge sundae, in the palm of your hands.  So yes, it is a little messy.  But totally worth it.  I've been thinking about using this recipe to make homemade waffle cones or bowls.  We opted to drizzle a little melted chocolate and sprinkles on our tacos.  Then we put them in the fridge until the chocolate hardened.  Chocolate on your chocolate?!  Si!

Chocolate Tacos

from: www.lovefromtheoven.com & www.myrecipes.com

1/2 c. powdered sugar

1/4 c. flour

3 Tbsp. cocoa

1 tsp. cornstarch

1/4 tsp. salt

3 Tbsp. egg whites (I used about 1 1/2 egg's worth)

1 tsp. milk

1/4 tsp. vanilla

cooking spray

1/2 c. chocolate chips

1 tsp. canola oil

sprinkles

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  In a medium bowl, combine the powdered sugar, flour, cocoa, cornstarch and salt and stir it well.  Then mix in the egg whites, milk and vanilla.  Coat a baking sheet with the cooking spray and draw six five inch circles with your finger onto the pan.  These will be a general outline for your batter.  Drop 1 tablespoon of batter onto each circle, and using the back of the spoon, spread the batter into your circle shape (I couldn't fit all six onto one pan, so I did it in two shifts).  Bake it for 6 minutes, or until the edges begin to brown.  While they are baking, find some wooden spoons and suspend them over deep bowls, as shown below (just imagine them without tacos draped over the top):  

Working quickly when the tacos are cooked, carefully loosen the edges of the tacos with a spatula, drape each taco over a suspended wooden spoon and gently shape them into the shape of a taco.  They are pretty delicate, but even with some helpers, ours all remained intact.  Let them cool completely in this shape.  When they are completely cooled, you are ready to add more chocolate!  In a small glass bowl, microwave the chocolate chips and canola oil for 30 seconds, then stir it until it is smooth.  Dip the edges of the tacos in the chocolate and then sprinkles (and drizzle the leftovers on, for good measure).  Put them in the fridge until it is hardened.  

When you are ready to eat, take them out, add some ice cream scoops and any toppings that you want and enjoy your chocolate taco!

Creme Brulee French Toast

Christmas Eve this year turned out very snowy for the few of us down in Southern Utah, Matt and I and my parents.  The weather ended up being too bad to travel up north to visit my sisters and their families for Christmas Eve, so we made the best of it (which ended up being an awesome time with my parents).  We made a special breakfast Christmas morning, including this amazingly rich and delicious Crème Brulee French Toast… and double sausage, which Matt always got on Christmas morning.  A Merry Christmas to both of us.  I think I might make this a Christmas morning tradition, but you should not wait until next Christmas to try it!

Crème Brulee French Toast

From Sixsistersstuff.com

1/2 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp corn syrup
1 loaf Texas Toast bread or other thick sliced bread (I just bought French bread and cut into thick slices)
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups half-and-half cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Dash of cinnamon

In a small saucepan melt butter, brown sugar, and corn syrup over medium heat until smooth, stirring occasionally.  Pour mixture onto large, greased jelly roll pan (18x13x1").  Spread around to cover surface. Place 12 slices of bread in a single layer to cover pan.  Mix together eggs, cream, salt, vanilla, and cinnamon.  Spoon mixture over each piece of bread.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.  Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes.  Remove from pan and serve.  If not serving immediately, turn each slice of bread over (this will prevent bread from sticking to the bottom of the pan).  You should definitely do as we did, and eat this with our Buttermilk Syrup that is insanely good.  

It's hard to believe, but that bread just soaks all of the mixture right up by morning.  The butter/sugar mixture creates the creme brulee effect on the bottom of the french toast, caramelizing it into sweet, rich goodness. 

Pumpkin Roll Pancakes

Heaven.  Given that pumpkin rolls are my favorite dessert, you can imagine my excitement to try these pancakes on for size.  And, as Our Best Bites say themselves, they're not as dessert-ish and unhealthy as you might think.  I even tweaked the recipe a little bit to make them even more healthy even less unhealthy:)  

If you can believe it, I had never tried real maple syrup until this year!  In all honesty, at first I didn’t think I liked it in place of my oh-so-familiar imitation-flavored maple syrup on breakfast foods; however, I had it with these, and in combination with the cream cheese topping it was so amazing!  If you can, I would definitely recommend splurging for the pure maple syrup.  It just adds decadence to the pancakes.  (Can pancakes be decadent?  Yep.)

Pumpkin Roll Pancakes
Idea completely credited to the wonderful minds of Our Best Bites (Thank you so much!)

Recipe slightly adapted from Our Best Bites

Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
3/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon applesauce

1 tablespoon canola oil
2 eggs
2/3 cup pumpkin puree

Cream Cheese Whipped Cream
4 ounces cream cheese (low fat is fine, no fat free)
4 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup whipping cream (heavy or regular) whipped until medium peaks form

Or

4 ounces cream cheese

1 tablespoon powdered sugar

Lite Cool Whip*

Pure maple syrup for serving

*(I folded in starting with about a cup until I reached the desired consistency and sweetness.  Remember this topping is meant to be less sweet than typical Pumpkin Roll filling; it makes it feel more breakfastyJ)

Instructions
Prepare whipped cream by beating cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth and creamy.  Take 1/2 of the whipped cream (that you already whipped) and beat it in until smooth.  Add the rest of the whipped cream and use a spatula to gently fold in (do not beat).  Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.   

Prepare pancakes.  Whisk together flours, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger.  Make sure to break up any clumps of brown sugar.  In a separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk, vanilla, oil, eggs and pumpkin.  Combine wet ingredients with dry and gently combine until mixed.  Do not overmix.

Heat a nonstick griddle to medium heat.  When hot, use butter or nonstick spray to coat the pan.  Drop 1/4 cup pancake batter to form each pancake and cook until edges set (if you wait until they bubble, it might be just a bit too long).  Flip pancakes and cook remaining side.
Serve warm pancakes with a dollop of cream cheese topping and a drizzle of maple syrup.

Makes 12-14 large pancakes.

Bacon Wrapped Thanksgiving Turkey

I cooked a turkey.  That deserves it's own sentence because I think I've only done this one or two other times.  I am right smack in the middle of a big family, so I am never in charge of the turkey at Thanksgiving.  Pies, yes, sweet potatoes, yes (the day we ate this turkey, I nearly burned Jen's house down while roasting the marshmallows on top of the sweet potatoes).  For this turkey, I wanted to try something different.  Something daring.  Something involving bacon.  Actually, I found this recipe on allrecipes and it got amazing reviews and I happened to have what I needed, so it was the winner.  It is called Sherry's German Turkey Recipe.  Maybe they eat turkey this way in Germany?  If you are German, let me know.  I prepared it the night before, which was lovely.  And it was good.  Very good.  It was deliciously moist and flavorful.  So if you happen to be the turkey maker for Thanksgiving, give this one a shot.

Bacon Wrapped Turkey
adapted from: allrecipes.com (Sherry's German Turkey)

1 whole turkey, neck and giblets removed
1 onion, cut in half
1 large carrot, peeled and cut in half
1 stalk celery (I didn't use this)
1 apple, stem removed and cut in half
1 orange, yes, you guessed it, cut in half
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. pepper
1 tsp. Lawry's season salt
1 pound sliced, smoked bacon
1 turkey oven bag

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Rinse the turkey and pat it dry with paper towels.  Shove the carrot, celery, onion, apple and orange into the cavity of your bird.  Think of this like a puzzle.  You may have to move things around to get it to work, but it will all fit in there.  Rub the oil all over the outside of the turkey and then sprinkle the salt, pepper and season salt on the bird and rub it all over as well.  Put the turkey into an oven bag (follow your oven bag's directions at this point.  Mine said to shake flour around inside the bag before putting the turkey in.  Just be obedient to the directions on the oven bag prep.)  Set the turkey (inside the oven bag) in a roasting pan.  Lay the strips of bacon all over the outside of the turkey.

One pound is a lot of bacon, so I was able to cover the turkey and then cover it some more.  Right now, you can either cook the turkey, or if you are doing this the night before, put it in your fridge until morning.  If you are cooking it, tie up the bag and make slits in it (again, follow whatever directions come with the bag).  Roast the turkey for about 4 hours, or until the internal temperature reaches 180 degrees (taken at the thickest part of the thigh).  When it is done, let it rest for 20 minutes, or so.

I didn't take any pictures of the finished product, but it looked just like this except the bacon was cooked!
Fruliche Geburtstag tsu dier!  (That actually means Happy Birthday to you, because I don't know how to say Happy Thanksgiving.)

Coconut Crusted French Toast

When Nicole visited last April, we thought it would be fun to make something different and delicious for breakfast on Easter morning.  At that time I was going through a coconut phase (still am, a little bit) and so this was an obvious choice for me.  It has taken me a long time to post it, but I have actually made it a couple more times because it is so delicious.  It definitely works best with a thicker bread, but is also yummy with regular bread.  We served ours with buttermilk syrup and fruit.  Mmmm. (P.S. this is Carolyn posting :)  

Coconut Crusted French Toast

adapted from: twopeasandtheirpod.com

3 eggs

3/4 c. coconut milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/8 tsp. salt

1 c. shredded sweetened coconut

6 slices french bread, cut into 1/2 inch slices (texas toast bread would work great, too) From the pictures, you can see that we used a thicker, regular bread, but I have also used french bread.

Heat a griddle or frying pan.  In a shallow dish, whisk together the eggs, coconut milk, vanilla and salt.  Pour the shredded coconut into another shallow dish.  Dip both sides of the bread in the egg mixture, then dip both sides into the shredded coconut (to coat the bread).  Place the bread onto your griddle or frying pan and then drizzle a little of the egg mixture over the top.  It will take a little more time to cook than usual.  When it is done, serve it with syrup or fruit, or both!

Cream Cheese Stuffed Lemon French Toast

 

I found this recipe on Our Best Bites a couple of weeks before Valentine's Day and thought it would be so fun to surprise Dustin with breakfast for the Day O' Love.  Little did I know (until 11:30 PM the night before) that he was planning on leaving for work by 6:25 AM that day.  Luckily, these were all prepared and waiting in the fridge for him to pop in the oven at 5:20 AM so that we could eat by 6:20 and he could be out the door on time.  How romantic of me to have him put his own surprise breakfast in the oven at that early hour!  Be aware that the reason that these were all prepared is because after you get them in the sauce, they have to sit for 8 hours in the fridge.  They are a little bit of a high maintenance meal, but so tasty and fun, especially for a special event. Here is a little tip: instead of buying expensive croissants, look for them in the Day Old section of your grocery store.  I got mine so much cheaper that way.  Plus they're supposed to be a little dried out.  Perfect!  They come partially dried out!

Cream Cheese Stuffed Lemon French Toast

adapted from: www.ourbestbites.com

4 large, stale croissants

1 8-oz. package cream cheese, softened (I accidentally used the lower fat kind *gasp* and it was still great)

1 1/4 c. powdered sugar, divided

2 lemons

2 eggs

1 1/2 c. milk

strawberries, sliced

sweetened whipped cream

Grease a 9X13 baking dish.  Slice the croissants in half lengthwise and set them aside.  In a medium bowl, combine the softened cream cheese, 3/4 c. of the powdered sugar, zest of one lemon and the strained juice of one lemon.  Mix it with your electric mixer until it is light and fluffy.  Spread the cream cheese mixture over one half of each croissant and replace the top.  You are going to put quite a bit of cream cheese on each croissant, using up all of your cream cheese.  Cut each croissant in half and place them in the baking dish.  They get pretty squished in there together, but that is okay.  In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, zest from the other lemon, juice from the other lemon and the rest of the powdered sugar (1/2 cup).  Pour it evenly over the croissants and cover it with tin foil.  Refrigerate it for 8-10 hours (that is why overnight is such a great idea!).  When you are ready to bake it, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Bake it for 30 minutes, then remove the tin foil and bake it for another 20-30 minutes.  The croissants will be golden and the liquid will be mostly absorbed.  After you take it out, let it stand for 5 or 10 minutes.  Serve it with sliced strawberries and sweetened whipped cream.

Red Velvet Pancakes

For Valentine's Day this year I decided we needed to try something festive.

Pancake Batter
1 1/4 cups flour
2 cups red velvet cake mix (I had about 1 1/2 cups of the dry cake mix left so if I made this again I'd probably use 1 3/4 cups to split it evenly between two batches).
1 Tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 -2 cups milk

Whisk all the ingredients for the pancake batter, but adjust the milk as necessary to your desired consistency.  Use small children if available.

My new griddle (this is the first time using it) ended up happiest at about 375, and I eventually didn't burn a few of these.  I attempted heart shapes but I'm not sure if it was noticable in the end.

Cream Cheese Frosting
4 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 to 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Mix the cream cheese and butter, then add powdered sugar and milk until you're satisfied. Don't add 2 cups of milk instead of 2 Tbsp, no matter how early in the morning it is. I already tried that and it didn't work out.

Add some sprinkles to the pancakes to make them into even more of a dessert.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Pumpkin Pecan Cake

I got this recipe a few years ago from Dustin's Aunt Julia, who is an amazing cook.  This has become one of my favorite pumpkin recipes.  It is a great alternative to pumpkin pie.  The cake-mix and pecans on top add a sweet crunchiness that is delicious.  I serve it with a little whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.


Pumpkin Pecan Cake
by: Aunt Julia


2 1/2 c. pumpkin
12 oz. can evaporated milk
1 c. sugar
3 eggs
1 Tbsp. cinnamon
1 pinch nutmeg
1 yellow cake mix
1 1/2 c. pecans
1 c. butter, melted (Just do it!  Don't think about it!)


Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl combine the pumpkin, evaporated milk, sugar, eggs, cinnamon and nutmeg and mix it well.  Pour the mixture into a greased 9X13 pan.  Sprinkle the yellow cake mix over the top.  Then sprinkle the pecans over the top of that.  Then drizzle your 1/2 POUND (!!) of melted butter over the top of that.  Please do this.  You will not regret it when you taste the first bite of sweet, slightly crispy, amazingly yummy, buttery cake.  Bake it for 60 minutes, or until a fork inserted in the center comes out clean.  Serve it with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.  It is best eaten a little warm.